


What A Wonderful World

by kaspozier



Category: Avengers (Comics), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alpine helps Bucky out, Bucky Barnes Needs a Hug, Bucky Barnes Recovering, Bucky Barnes Remembers, Bucky is a soft boy, Bucky plays piano, Flashbacks, M/M, Memory Loss, Minor Clint Barton, Muscle Memory, No Beta, Pre-Serum Steve Rogers, Slow Build, Tony Stark Has A Heart, We Die Like Men, mentioned - Freeform, tony is too, tony plays piano
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-22
Updated: 2019-08-22
Packaged: 2020-09-23 19:55:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,514
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20345815
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kaspozier/pseuds/kaspozier
Summary: Dedicated to @tazisthemaster on twitter for the prompt!Prompt: ok but like i love the idea of 40s bucky knowing how to play piano and then present bucky having to relearn but still having some muscle memory decades later





	What A Wonderful World

_His fingers glide across the keys, elegantly pressing them, knowing the song by heart. Bucky knew what helped Steve calm down while lying sick in bed, or how to bring him back in from a particular vicious day. Bucky knew what songs Steve liked listening to when painting, sketching, or while he was working in general. _

_ The familiar tune of Ain’t Misbehavin’ by Fats Waller filled their shared apartment. Bucky lost himself into the song instantly, the worries of the day falling off of his shoulders. Steve sat next to him, nursing a bruised and broken nose while sketching out Bucky playing the piano. It was easy for both boys to lose themselves into the sound of the song filling the apartment. Bucky was self-taught, learning from listening to the songs on the record player. He would sit on his stool, eyes closed as he swayed to the song, his fingers ghosting the keys as a song would play. Then, like he had known it his whole life, Bucky could play the song almost perfectly the moment he had listened to it twice through. _

_ It was a passion, and yeah, he wouldn’t lie if he said he didn’t use his skill of playing piano to pick up dames to have a swell time with after getting off work. But it was rare that he even did that, the day’s frustration building up too much as the threat of war grew closer and closer every passing day. Even then, he knew he would find a way to play the piano, even if it wasn’t real. _

_ He would tap the songs out on his thigh while riding on the tank back to camp after Steve saved him from that horrid Hydra base, and when they go to the bar, maybe he would silently slide the piano player a couple of dollars to take over, playing as many songs as he can before he’s drunk and can barely see the keys down in front of him, maybe if he keeps going he can stop feeling the dread of something bad about to happen that’s sending a chill down his spine at every waking moment. _

_ All Bucky had to do was keep playing, it was the one good thing he brought with him in the war. The one good thing he could always count on, the one thing that would help him sleep better at night, so maybe if he kept playing until his fingers grew sore and he could barely think, it wouldn’t be as hard to breathe when he saw Steve and felt an immediate rush of “Kill, hurt, Captain America is evil, wants to destroy our vision, Soldier.” through his head. _

_ Maybe if he pressed a little too harshly on the keys, everything would be okay and he could pretend he was back in their rundown apartment in Brooklyn and that Steve was still small, nursing a broken nose or...or_

“-rnes.” Bucky blinked slowly, moving to rub his eyes slightly. He was proud of himself for jumping slightly at the touch of his metal hand against his face.

“Barnes. Hey, Barnes. You okay? You looked spaced out there, and we all know that’s my kinda thing, plus it’s like 4 am. Shouldn’t you be asleep?” Tony asked, rambling slightly though Bucky could see the slight tremble in his hands, the bags under his eyes, and the slight tension in Tony’s shoulders. 

“I’m fine, doll. Looks like you’re the one who needs rest.” Bucky told him, his voice rough from not talking. He was a little surprised that it was 4 in the morning. When he had gotten up from another nightmare, leaving Steve asleep in their shared bed, and yes Clint, it was the only way they could both sleep somewhat peacefully, and no, Clint, they weren’t dating, it was almost 1 in the morning. 

“Either way, why were you sitting on the piano bench, staring at the piano like it killed your favorite puppy or something?” Tony asked, his fingers pressing down on the G key slightly, letting the sound ring around them.

“I use to play, I think. I had another memory. A couple, I think, very blurred together. Was sittin’ in Stevie and I’s apartment, he was nursin’ a broken nose, I think. Can’t remember too well. I was playin a song, I can’t..” he let out a frustrated noise, glaring down at the keys in front of him.

Tony didn’t say anything, looking over at Bucky with sympathy in his own eyes before his fingers slowly started gliding across the keys as he started playing What a Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong. He closed his eyes, his hands moving gracefully. It was the only song his mother had taught him by hand before she had succumbed to the pressure of being married to Howard, taking pills and barely coming out of her room. 

Bucky watched along, silently wishing he could remember how to play. He knew, with a faint pain going through his heart, that playing the piano would help Steve and himself with having something to hold on to that connected them to their families that wasn’t each other. Bucky closed his eyes, swaying slightly to the piano playing throughout the room.

He opened his eyes once Tony had finished, “Will you play it ‘gain?” He asked the man softly, his fingers ghosting over the keys, “Please?” 

“You don’t need to ask, James.” Tony told him softly, smiling genuinely at the man before playing the song again, watching as Bucky ghosted his fingers over the keys Tony was playing on his thigh. He turned his attention back to the piano and internally cursed when he missed a key at the end of the song. 

Tony’s head shot up when he heard the correct key being played in time with the rest of the song. Bucky shot him a sheepish look.

“I’m sorry, couldn’t help m’self.” He muttered, eyeing the keyboard in front of him. He wanted to play, so badly. He could feel his fingers twitching, begging to be let loose onto the elegant keys in front of him.

“Play something. Something you would know, or that you’ve listened to recently.” Tony suggested, watching Bucky drop his fingers into a certain pattern almost immediately. Tony held in a gasp when he heard the beginning of Bohemian Rhapsody. He could see the tension drain from Bucky’s body as he started playing the song. 

Bucky lost himself the moment his fingers touched against the keys, playing the song he had heard Peter and Harley listening to over and over the other day. He closed his eyes, concentrating on the song playing through his head, trying to match it with his fingers so that his fingers could match it onto the keys. He sung softly along with the song, trying to keep himself on beat. 

It was like he was back in their rundown apartment in Brooklyn, back in the 40’s, with Steve sitting by his side while he played a song that he couldn’t name now. It was pure muscle memory of getting lost in playing, letting the song play through him and into the air, filling it’s silence with something beautiful, something amazing, and something Bucky hadn’t done since that fateful day when he fell off the train in the Alps. He felt at home, calm, happy, and, dare he say it, safe. 

Bucky let out a curse as he opened his eyes. He had forgotten the last part of the song. He couldn’t think of it, nor even picture it in his head. Both him and Tony looked up at the top of the piano when they heard a soft purring and the familiar sound of the last key being pressed as Alpine walked across the keyboard towards Bucky as the cat rubbed against his beard before crawling up onto the keyboard and promptly falling asleep. 

He smiled widely, looking over at Tony who smiled back. “You got it, James. It was all muscle memory right there. You still have it. I expect to be doing this with you every night we can’t sleep, understand?” Tony teased.

“Doing what? Have nightmares then meet each other at the piano in the common room to play songs from our past to wake up our grumpy teammates?” Bucky deadpanned, earning a cackle from Stark as said man started for the elevator.

“Exactly that, James. Now, go get some sleep.” He said as the elevator doors closed. And if Bucky went to bed and woke up in the morning to a grand piano on his and Steve’s shared floored, then no one had to know if he went downstairs into Tony’s lab and cried into his shoulder while thanking him. No one had to know if Tony and him would play each other a new song every night, and no one had to know the secret smiles and the soft touches, the brush of lips against a temple, a cheek, or the lips, well then it would just stay as their little secret.


End file.
